Digital rights management (DRM) schemes attempt to prevent any use of digital content that is not desired or intended by the content provider. For example, High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) is meant to stop HDCP-encrypted content from being played on devices that do not support HDCP, or on devices that have been modified to copy HDCP content. Before sending data, a transmitting device checks that the receiver is authorized to receive it. If so, the transmitter encrypts the data to prevent eavesdropping as it flows to the receiver.
DRM schemes may, however, be intrusive and touch many parts of a system. For example, many DRM schemes run with full (e.g., admin and root) access to a user's system, which can result in reduced security and privacy.
With “sandboxed” applications such as web browsers, a limited (i.e., sandboxed) “DRM” code may want to use content protection such as HDCP or a secure media path, for example to prevent copying of digital audio and video content as it travels across connections. Sandboxes, however, generally do not provide access to HDCP or secure media paths, and even if they did, the sandboxed “DRM” code would not be able to tell whether the other side of the sandbox is doing what is requested. Nor would it be able to determine if the environment outside the sandbox is trusted. Thus, an attacker could easily drop such requests, lie about the state, or intercept calls or data.
Accordingly, there exists a need for systems and methods to address the shortfalls of present technology and to provide other new and innovative features.